We are writing this Preface to the Memorial Volume, with a sense of great humility, of.the towering personality Mm. Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri in whose memory our Institute had been founded in 1944-45. We are privileged to be at the helm of the academic activities of the Institute bearing his name. It had been our earnest desire to bring out this Volume again and make it available to the young scholars of today in order to make them understand the magnitude of this great mind and emulate him.
`Thoroughness' was his watchword and hence he had been a teacher par excellence and this is recollected by all his students and also colleagues in this Volume. Learned scholars from all over the country and abroad have paid homage to this great scholar on his demise and these have been collected and presented in this Volume. Single handedly Prof. Kuppuswami Sastri paved the way for the development of Sanskrit studies including research in this field in South India. A Himalayan task indeed. It is no wonder he was respected by every one and was also honoured with many titles during his life time.
The Institute named after him has grown quite admirably under the able stewardship of, first Dr.V.Raghavan, the most illustrious student of Prof. Sastri and a great scholar of international repute, followed by Dr. S. S. Janaki also well known internationally, who in turn was the student of Dr. V. Raghavan. We are proud to claim our association with this galaxy of scholars.
We have enlarged the original Memorial Volume by adding the Kavya in four cantos, titled 'Gurucaritram', a biographical composition on Mm. Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri by his disciple Prof. M. Ramakrishna Bhat. We have also added Dr. V. Raghavan's article on his Professor's Life and Works. Both these have been published earlier in 1981 in the Mm. Professor Kuppuswami Sastri Birth Centenary Commemoration Volume.
In addition to this we have also rearranged the contents of the earlier Memorial Volume into different categories. Also the tributes written by scholars in language other than Sanskrit and Tamil have been translated into English.
As a mark of our reverence and gratitude to this great Professor, we are happy to bring out this Volume on the Inaugural function of the 70th Anniversary Celebrations of the Institute, with the prayer that the Institute may grow from strength to strength to celebrate its Centenary.
In this small volume are gathered together the appreciations of the many friends and admirers including pupils of the late Sri Kuppuswami Sastriar. I first came into contact with him in the Office of Sir P.S. Sivaswami Aiyar who indented on his superior knowledge of the MimAmsa for the interpretation of Smrti texts. I have seen him in the Senate of the Madras University fighting for the causes he had at heart. I have seen him at closer quarters in the Annamalai University where we were both members of the Senate and Syndicate together. It is only now that I realise that he was six years younger than myself. I always paid him the respect due to a senior in age. That he was senior was an impression produced, I think, by the depth of his learning.
The combination in him of the Panclita's depth of learning with the most modern methods of research was so obvious a feature of his, that it received mention in many appreciations here. I have heard him discourse in Sanskrit with easy intelligibility, very rare in one of his deep learning.
Sir P.S. Sivaswami Aiyar used to remark that one of his profound learning could and should have produced many books. He has repeated it in his appreciation included in this volume. It is not perhaps in the tradition of a Kulapati to write books but only to teach all day long a vast number of pupils and be an exemplar to them. Till the end he believed that he would die an octagenarian and would perform the last offices to the mother who unfortunately survived him. Had he the length of life in retired leisure he hoped for, he might have had time to write books. As it is, the Chronological Index prefixed to this volume and the appreciations of his many pupils show how active and strenuous his life has been.
He had done a great deal for Sanskrit in his time, but even he would not have been able to stem the tide of opposition to Sanskrit that is now in evidence.
The condition of Sanskrit education today is only a test of our love for Sanskrit. True lovers of Samskrit in and out of the Samskrita Academy and Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute may yet do much to foster the cause of Samskrit education. If the cause of Sanskrit education languished and failed, it will be our fault. We the members of the Academy and the Institute owe it to the memory of Sri Kuppuswami Sastri to promote Sanskrit study.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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